Suspect in deadly NYC crash yet to surrender; $15,000 reward offered

Suspect in deadly NYC crash yet to surrender; $15,000 reward offered

A person walks towards the graves of Nathan and Raizy Glauber, at the Satmar Cemetery 2 in Kiryas Joel, New York, Monday, March 4, 2013. The baby boy delivered prematurely after his parents, Nathan and Raizy Glauber, were killed Sunday in a New York City hit-and-run accident died Monday, March 4, 2013, a community spokesman said, while the search for the driver who fled on foot narrowed. AP photo by Craig Ruttle

By Colleen Long

Associated Press

Police worked through the night searching for a man suspected of driving the car that killed a pregnant woman, her husband and ultimately their child in a wreckage-strewn crash as members of their community offered a $15,000 reward.

Police on Tuesday said they'd had no contact with Julio Acevedo, 44, and early Wednesday he'd still not turned himself in although a friend said he planned to surrender.

"We are still looking to apprehend him," police spokesman Paul Browne said. "We have no information that he is going to surrender."

Acevedo told the Daily News of New York Tuesday that he was speeding away from a gunman who was trying to shoot at him early Sunday when the accident with a hired car happened in Williamsburg.

The car was carrying Nachman and Raizy Glauber, both 21. They died Sunday and their premature son died on Monday.

Members of the couple's Hasidic Jewish community have offered a $15,000 reward for information leading to Acevedo's capture and called for murder charges to be filed.

Acevedo told the Daily News that he fled the scene because he was worried he'd be killed and didn't know the couple had died until he saw it in newspapers.

"My heart goes out to them," Acevedo told the newspaper Tuesday in a phone call arranged by a friend, Derrick Hamilton. "I didn't know they died until I saw the news."

Hamilton said Acevedo was running for his life after the crash, and called it a terrible accident. He told The Associated Press that Acevedo was meeting with a lawyer and that they were going to arrange for Acevedo to turn himself in.

Police said Acevedo was in a BMW going at least 60 mph when he crashed. The hired car had a stop sign; it's not clear if the driver stopped.

Acevedo was arrested last month on a charge of driving while under the influence, and the case is pending. He was stopped by police after they said he was driving erratically around 3 a.m. Feb. 17. He had a blood-alcohol level of .13, over the limit of .08, police said.

Acevedo served about a decade in prison in the 1990s for manslaughter after he was convicted of shooting Kelvin Martin, a Brooklyn criminal whose moniker "50 Cent" was the inspiration for rapper Curtis Jackson's current stage name. Neighbors said his mother lived in the same building, but she did not answer her door.

Shortly after midnight Sunday, Raizy Glauber, who was seven months pregnant, wasn't feeling well, so the couple decided to go to the hospital, said Sara Glauber, Nachman Glauber's cousin. They called a livery cab, a hired car that is arranged via telephone, not hailed off the street like a yellow cab.

The crash with the BMW reduced the cab to a crumpled heap, and Raizy Glauber was thrown from the wreck. The engine ended up in the back seat. The driver of the livery cab was knocked unconscious but was not seriously hurt.

The couple belonged to a close-knit ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn, which is home to the largest community of ultra-Orthodox Jews outside Israel, more than 250,000. They were members of the Satmar Hasidic sect. Raizy Glauber grew up in a prominent rabbinical family. Her husband was studying at a rabbinical college; his family founded a line of clothing for Orthodox Jews.

The child was delivered by cesarean section after his parents were killed. The baby weighed only about 4 pounds when he was delivered, neighbors and friends said. He died of extreme prematurity, the city medical examiner's office said.

The baby was buried Monday near his parents' graves, according to Isaac Abraham, a spokesman for the Hasidic Jewish community. About a thousand community members turned out for the young couple's funeral a day earlier.

How Acevedo came to possess the BMW is under investigation. The registered owner, Takia Walker, was arrested Sunday on insurance fraud charges in a scam involving the car, police said, but the Bronx district attorney's office said Tuesday that the case was deferred. Walker was not involved in the crash. A telephone number listed for her rang unanswered.

March 6, 2013 - 10:15am

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3:18 p.m. Update
Police have identified a suspect being sought in the hit-and-run deaths of a pregnant woman and her husband whose baby died on Monday, a day after the Brooklyn car crash. … Full Article